When the Tampa Bay Bucs looked into why Chicago Bears offensive lineman Gabe Carimi wasn’t at the team’s offseason training activities, they found the Bears would listen for an offer.

Carimi was a first-round pick of the Bears in 2011 but had knee problems. He played more last year but not at the level the Bears expected from a first-round pick.

The Bucs offered a sixth-round pick for him and the Bears accepted. Carimi did enough in his physical for the Bucs to sign off on the deal.

“You almost have to look at last year as kind of his rookie year because he only played a couple of games his first year, so he missed a lot of chance to grow and develop,” said Bucs GM Mark Dominik. “You could see he was not 100 percent, and they wound up having to sit him.”

Last year, Carimi started bunch of games, lost his position then returned in a different spot.

“He looked more rusty than like a guy with limited skills,” Dominik said.”

It could be a good move for a couple of reasons:

Best-case scenario: he pushes right tackle Demar Dotson for the starting position (although I don’t believe he will beat out Dot). His salary (about $1 million this year) won’t kill the Bucs.

Also, the Bucs also believe he can provide depth for the offensive line.

“It provides competition, which is our favorite word,” Dominik said. “But it is. It provides competition at right tackle. It also adds a lot of depth to our team. It provides a guy who can play inside at guard. He’s played right guard and right tackle.”

He played under Bucs offensive line coach Bob Bostad while the two were at Wisconsin.

Worst Case: He’s not healthy and doesn’t make the squad. This means the Bucs threw away a draft pick for next year.